Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic and its affect on Jewish communities around the world.
COVID-19
The Latest
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News Synagogues made COVID-safe High Holiday plans. Then came Delta.
(JTA) — The leadership team at Ikar, a synagogue in Los Angeles, had just begun planning to move their services indoors. They had gone through a year of virtual services followed by several months of outdoor services for members vaccinated against COVID-19. Then the Delta variant hit. Now the synagogue, like many across the country,…
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Fast Forward Covid-busting ‘hand sanitizer for the nose’ goes on sale in Israel
Enovid, a new nasal spray that counteracts SARS-CoV-2, among other viruses, is now on sale in Israel. Although Israel approved Enovid as a medical device with a claim to protect from viruses, Phase II clinical trials in the United Kingdom found statistically significant evidence that the spray can prevent the transmission of the coronavirus and…
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News With vaccines scarce at home, Central and Latin America Jews journey to the US
Samuel Hayon, a Venezuelan living in Miami, was shocked when he went to Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital to try and get the COVID-19 shot in February. “I just ran into the entire Hebraica Israeli!” he said, referring to Caracas’s Jewish community. Hayon had noticed a trend that would only grow in the coming weeks and…
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Opinion Dropping my kids off at Jewish summer camp taught me how to let go
For many, our slow-motion exodus from the pandemic has yielded a harvest of mundane yet miraculous firsts — handshakes, hugs, houseguests, days back in the office, unmasked cappuccinos at our favorite cafes and many more. I have savored these reunions with life as I once knew it, yet none of them prepared me for dropping…
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Fast Forward GOP Washington state lawmaker apologizes for wearing Yellow Star of David
A Washington state lawmaker has apologized for wearing a yellow Star of David, a universal symbol of the Holocaust, during a recent speech decrying the state government’s coronavirus vaccination campaign as well as restrictions that have been in place since the pandemic began. “It’s an echo from history,” Jim Walsh, a Republican member of the…
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Fast Forward Baruj Plavnick, 69, rabbi whose synagogue was used as vaccination center, dies of COVID
(JTA) — BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) — Bernardo Javier “Baruj” Plavnick, 69, the Argentine rabbi who opened his Buenos Aires synagogue for use as a vaccination center, died of COVID-19 on May 20. Pardes, the community founded by Plavnick in 1992, announced in February that it was establishing a vaccination center inside the synagogue. Some…
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Books She followed rookie doctors through the very worst of COVID
(JTA) — (New York Jewish Week via JTA) — For most New Yorkers, the early days of COVID-19 were synonymous with eerily empty streets, the constant wail of sirens, and the clapping and cheering for health care workers. But what was it really like for the doctors and other health care professionals who found themselves…
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Culture Raves in the desert, secret parties in mansions — COVID couldn’t stop Israel’s underground party scene
In Israel, #hotvaxxedsummer is already underway; all restrictions have been lifted, bars are packed and parties are sold out. Hookup culture has come back to life, and people are beyond grateful to be out of their houses, finally seeing their friends and meeting new people. But not everyone actually stopped seeing people in the first…
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Fast Forward Trump to ‘defend the rights of Christians,’ announces new faith initiative led by controversial televangelist
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Music In lawsuit, Drake accuses Kendrick Lamar of picking on ‘Jewish heritage’
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Opinion Yes, Trump’s Gaza plan is outrageous. It could also be just what the Middle East needs
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Fast Forward US Jewish groups respond to Trump’s Gaza comments
In Case You Missed It
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Film & TV In the brutality of ‘The Brutalist,’ a misunderstanding of the Jewish architect’s experience
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Fast Forward Google Calendar no longer shows Holocaust Remembrance Day and Jewish American Heritage Month
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Fast Forward ‘Not the Jewish party’: Candidate to lead Michigan Dems under fire for antisemitic comments
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Fast Forward 56% of American Jews changed behavior in the past year over antisemitism fears, survey finds
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